Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-12-10


tIpsy combination of leer and wink.
"Hyar is the persuaderl" He wrapped
sharply on his pistol. "Thisll scotch his
wheel.'
"Hold yer own jaw-ye drunken pos
sum-" retorted another of the group.
''Ef ye fire off that pistol in hyar we'll
hev all these hyar rocks"-he DO inted at
the walls and the long collonades-"an
swerin' back an yowin' like a pack o.
hounds on hot scent. Eff thar air folks
outside, the noise would fotch 'em down
on us fur truer
Dick breathed more freely. The
rocks would speak up for himl He
could not be harmed with all these tell
tale witnesses at hand. So silent now,
but with latent voice strong enough fol
the dread of it to save him!
The man who had put out the fire,
who had led the reconnoitering party,
who had made all the active preparations
for departure, who seemed, in short, to
be an executive committee of cne-a
long, lank, lazy-looking mountaineer,
with a decision of action in startling
contrast 10 his whole aspect, now took
this matter in hand.
"Nothin' easier,r he said, tersely.
Gill him up. Make him ez drunk ez a
fresh billed owel. Then lead him to the
t'other eend o. the cave. an blindfold
him, an lug him off five mile in the
woods. an leave him thar. He'll never
know what he hev seen nor DONE"
''That's the dinctuml" cried the red
bearded man, IN delighted approval.
Then singing in his high quavering
"'Twixt me an you l really think
It's almost time ter take drink"-
he broke into wild hiccoughing laugh,
inexpressibly odious to the boy.
In the preparations for departure all
the lights had been. .extinguished, except
a single lantern, and a multitude Of
shadows had come thronging from the
deeper recesses of the cave In the faint
glimmer the figures of the men loomed
up indistinct, gigantic, distorted. They
hardly seemed men at all to Dick; ;
rather some evil under ground creature,
neither beast nor human.
And he was to be made as besotted,
as loathsome, even more helpless than
they, in order that his senses might be
sapped away, and he should remember no
story to tell. Perhaps if he had not had
before him SO vivid an illustration of the
malign power that swayed them, he
might not have experienced so strong an
aversion to it. Now, to be made like
them, seemed high price to pay for his
life. And there was his promise to his
motherl As the long, lank, lazy looking
mountaineer pressed the whisky upon
him ha 1H With ft1r q n
unexpected and vehement that the
cracked jug fell to the floor and was
shivered to fragments.
Dick lifted an appealing face to the
man who seized him with strong grip.
81 can't WON'T" the boy cried
wildly. 'I-I-promised my mother"
He looked around the circle deprecat-
ingly. He expected first a guffaw and
then blow, and he dreaded the ridicule
more than the pain.
But there were neither blows nor ridi-
cule. They all gazcd at him, astounded.
Then a change, which Dick hardly com
pretended, fitted across the face of the
man who had grasped him. He turned
away abruptly, with bitter laugh that
startled all the echoes.
'I-I promised my mother, too" he
cried. 1T air good that she's whar she
can't know how l hev KEEP it."
And then there was a sudden silence.
1t seemed to. Dick, strangely enough,
like the sudden silence that comes after
a prayer. He was reminded, as one of the
men rose at length, and the keg on which
he had been sitting creaked with the mo-
tion, of the creaking benches in the little
mountain church when the congregation
started from their knees. And had some
feeble, cropping sinners prayer filed the
silence and the moral darkness
The executive committee" promptly
recovered himself. But he made no
further attempt to force the whiskey upon
the boy. Under some whispered instruc-
tions which he gave the others, Dick was
half-leG, half-dragged through i'm
mensely long black halls of the cave,
while one of the men went before carry
ing the feeble lantern. When the first
glimmer of daylight appeared in the dis
tancc, he understood that the cave had
an outlet other than the one by which ne
had entered, and evidently miles distant
from it. Thus it was that the distillers
were well enabled to battle the law that
sought them.
They stopped here and blindfolded
the boy. How far and where they
dragged him through the snowy mount
ain wilderness outside, Dick never knew.
He was exhausted, when at length they
allowed him to pause As he heard their
steps dying away in the distance, he tore
the bandage from his eyes, and found
that they had left him in the midst of a
wagon road to make his way to Birk's
Mill as best he might. When he reached
it the wintry SUI was low in the western
sky, and the very bones of the 'pea-
fowei" were picked.
On the whole, it seemed a sorry Christ
mas Day, as Dick could not know then
indeed, he never knew-what good re-
suits it brought forth. For among those
who took the benefit Of the clemency cx-
tended by the Government to the "moon-
sinners" Of this region, on condition that
they discontinue illicit distilling for the
future, was certain long, lank, lazy
looking mountaineer who suddenly be-
came sober and steady and law-abiGing
citizen. He had been reminded, this